Cellulose is a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundreds to ten thousand linked D-glucose units. Cellulose fibers can be, for example, refined with a refiner or a grinder to produce fibril cellulose material. Fibril cellulose refers to isolated cellulose microfibrils or microfibril bundles derived from cellulose raw material. Therefore, fibril cellulose, which is also known as nanofibrillar cellulose (NFC) and by other related names, is based on a natural polymer that is abundant in nature. Fibril cellulose has many potential uses for example based on its capability of forming viscous gel in water, i.e. hydrogel.
Typically production of fibril cellulose is done in very low consistency between 1 and 4%. Thus, a solution for drying is needed, for example, in order to transport material with reasonable costs. However, it is a well known fact that removing water from fibril cellulose is challenging. In addition, fibril cellulose may lose some needed properties due to hornification during drying. Therefore, especially redispersion of nanomaterial is challenging after drying.